NEWSLETTER OF TOWER HAMLETS LOCAL HISTORY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES LH&A NEWS J U L Y 2 0 1 2 N U M B E R 1 8 Old Ford Voices and Island Memories Our latest exhibition showcases the memories of local residents of the area of Bow known as Old Ford, including the Island (now known as Fish Island), located in the north-eastern corner of Tower Hamlets. Voices from this community were recorded in oral history interviews commissioned by the library last year and portrait photographs taken of the interviewees, all of whom have a strong connection to the area. These oral histories were collected as part of a bigger project organised by Hackney Museum entitled ‘Mapping the Change’, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. ‘Mapping The Change’ aims to engage people in the heritage of neighbourhoods affected by redevelopment brought about by the 2012 Olympics. Oral histories have also been collected in Hackney Wick, Homerton and Dalston and have been exhibited at Hackney Museum. In Old Ford, nearly twenty residents and workers shared their memories of growing up, work, play and family life during the twentieth century. This exhibition, based on their testimonies, provides a valuable and intimate look into the personal histories of Old Ford and the Island. The last day of this free exhibition is Thursday 6 September after which the library will be closed temporarily for building works. Please check visiting times on www.ideastore.co.uk or the last page of this newsletter. Simeera Hassan, heritage skills trainee As reported in last month’s newsletter, our new CARIBBEAN Opening up Archives trainee is Simeera FAMILY HISTORY Hassan who has joined us on a year-long paid DAY placement as part of a scheme managed by The National Archives and supported by the SATURDAY 21 Heritage Lottery Fund. Simeera’s work involves JULY developing our collection of archive material related to the local Somali community. Simeera Join Sharon Tomlin of is a graduate of Goldsmiths, University of Carib Genealogy for our London with a BA degree in social sciences, regular family history community development and youth work. She workshop for those with has previously worked in the deputy prime Caribbean roots. It takes minster’s office doing youth advising, and is a place from 12-3pm on Saturday 21 July and Somali Day Centre montage. qualified youth worker. A resident of Poplar, Simeera is a poet and does creative this month’s theme is empowerment workshops in her spare time. She is learning how to collect Cemetery and Somali archives and oral histories from the local residents, businesses, and Monumental Inscriptions. community organisations in Tower Hamlets. She says, “I hope to put the Somali community on the map and be a voice for the voiceless. Training in Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives is a wonderful opportunity to gain better experience, develop my skills and learn more about how history is collected. I love working here and feel like I’m learning something new each day.” Simeera will be curating an exhibition of our new Somali collections in March 2013. She recently prepared a picture montage about some of the users of Mayfield House Somali Day Centre in Bethnal Green as part of their open day celebration which had a large turnout and overall was a big success. Visit from Whitechapel Gallery trainees In June six trainees from the explore the collections further, with a Whitechapel Gallery visited the range of material (from both the Local History Library and Archives library and archive collections) on for a talk and tour of the collections display and also demonstrations of led by Natasha O’Neill, Heritage the electronic cataloguing system Officer (Archives). Funded by the and web-based resources used by Heritage Lottery Fund, each year the the Local History Library and Whitechapel Gallery recruits six Archives to manage and provide trainees on annual paid placements access to the collections. Simeera within six different departments at Hassan also introduced the work the gallery. she is currently undertaking for the Local History Library and Archives The visit consisted of a talk which as part of her traineeship which is aimed to provide the trainees with funded from the same Heritage an overview of the collections and a Lottery Fund strand, Skills For The brief history of the service and its Future, established to provide on-the development. This was followed by -job training and accreditation for a an opportunity for the visitors to diverse heritage workforce. New maps for sale Booth’s descriptive maps of London Poverty 1889: East London. A reproduction of Booth’s famous poverty maps, “A map of Eastern London coloured by street to show the lifestyle of the inhabitants from the wealthy upper classes to the vicious and semi-criminal lowest classes”. This map shows East London both north and south of the river. A Map of Victorian London showing the Public Houses in the Metropolis 1886. This map was produced by the Temperance Movement to show the “plague of London”. It goes as far east as Bow and Old Ford and the eastern side of the Docks. A street map of Jewish East London 1899 Similar to the Booth map this map is colour-coded to show the density of Jewish population. It covers East London from Shoreditch High Street and Bishopsgate in the west to Tower Hamlets Cemetery in the east. These new maps are published by Old House Books for sale at the price of £9.99 each. In this year………..250 years ago This Grade II listed building in Alie Street, Whitechapel, is the oldest surviving German church in the UK. It contains an organ designed by the German pipe-organ manufacturer, Walcker, and many other remarkable original furnishings including a complete set of ground floor and gallery pews and a magnificent, high, central double-decker pulpit and sounding board. The church was founded by Dietrich Beckman, a wealthy sugar refiner, in what was then Little Alie Street, for the sizeable German community in Whitechapel and St George-in- St George’s German Lutheran Church the-East, many of whom also worked in the was founded in 1762 sugar-baking industry. The building survives, continuing to be used as a Lutheran place of worship until 1996, and it is now in the care of the Historic Chapels Trust. The church’s very extensive archives are held here at Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives. These include registers of baptisms (1763 – 1894) burials (1763 – 1853) and marriages (1825-1896). Cataloguing the periodicals collection Last month saw the completion of standards and the best way to adapt a volunteer project to catalogue library standards to the archives the library’s periodicals collection. management system, CALM. This project began last September with a stock check of the 385 different titles were added to periodicals held by the library. This CALM. Some periodicals were only a was a large project as periodicals few issues while others covered many were stored in four different decades. Many of these publications locations and some were bound are very small press local publications and some unbound. Staff noted by local groups. Some of this material which issues we held and which is very rare and appears not to be held were missing. elsewhere, even at the British Library. The material covers annual reports, In February we recruited two newsletters, magazines and students from City University who newspapers from local organisations, are studying for masters’ degrees community groups, housing in library and information science, associations, churches, Docklands Nicole Shelawala and Jennifer regeneration, arts festivals etc. as well May. They were taught cataloguing as many publications produced by the council. It includes 46 titles in Bengali or dual language Bengali and English published from 1981-2012. Cataloguing this material has been a huge benefit to the library. When CALM becomes available online not only will people be able to search to see if we hold a periodical but also which issues are available. We are exceedingly grateful to the hard work and dedication that Nicole and Jenny have put in over the past four months. Both have enjoyed the project and volunteered to stay on for our next volunteer cataloguing project of cataloguing the oversize books. Jennifer May, volunteer. New bags for sale To mark its 10th anniversary, Idea Store has produced a range of promotional items for sale, including a ‘bag for life’. These limited edition bags are attractive, sturdy, eco-friendly and on sale at the bargain price of £2.50! Please ask in our reading room if you are interested in purchasing one. IMPORTANT NOTICE: TEMPORARY Picture of the month: CLOSURE FOR Poplar Swimming Club, 1908 BUILDING WORKS As reported in the last newsletter, from the week commencing Monday 10 September 2012 Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives will be temporarily closing to enable the restoration/ replacement of the building's roofs and the installation of a new lift. We expect to re-open early in 2013 and will keep you updated when This postcard shows the members of Poplar Swimming Club posing on the we have a confirmed diving apparatus at their headquarters, Poplar Baths in East India Dock Road date. We regret the (opened in 1852 and rebuilt in 1933). Though only male members feature, the inconvenience this is club was open to both sexes. The club was ten years old at this time. The club likely to cause to our had an annual programme of competitive races which included, along with users. We will be standard races such as the 100 Yards Handicap, more unusual ones such as offering a limited remote the Ladies’ Fancy Dress Race and the Top Hat and Umbrella Race.